By Ken Afor
A Civil Society Organisation, CSO, Good Governance Movement, has called on President Bola Tinubu to amend the 2023 supplementary budget, which is awaiting approval by the National Assembly, resulting in a cut of N500 billion from the supplementary budget.
Once in office, the President sought and received approval from the National Assembly for the use of N500 billion in the 2022 Supplementary Fund as a mitigation measure to support the impact of the withdrawal of fuel subsidies.
At a press conference held on Thursday, the NGO Coordinator in Abuja, Terhila James Loguruum, said a fund of N500 billion should be provided in the 2023 supplementary budget to support critical infrastructure.
He noted that after the flood disaster in 2022, some roads and bridges tendered to local contractors were abandoned due to non-payment.
He recalled that the government has approved additional financing of N819 billion in 2022, of which N705 billion has been allocated to the Federal Ministry of Public Works and Housing to repair infrastructure damaged by floods.
Further according to Lorguruum,
“However, sometime this year, President Tinubu sought and got the approval of the national assembly to use N500 billion for palliatives and this affected payment to contractors handling the works.
“One expects that the rational thing for the president to do is to earmark money in the present supplementary budget to cater for payment due to these contractors so the work can go on seamlessly.
“Rather than do that, the government was silent on payment for these contractors only for it to allocate N300 billion for the award of new contracts to repair bridges and construction, rehabilitation and maintenance of roads across the country.”
The group also directed the Minister of Public Works, David Umahi, to use his expertise as an engineer to secure funding to ensure the completion of all contracts awarded after the 2022 floods.
